Species Turnover and Environmental Filtering Structure Plant Communities in Moist Temperate Forests

Area of Science:

• Ecology
• Botany
• Environmental Science

Background:

• Montane moist temperate forests exhibit rapid plant community changes due to steep environmental gradients.
• Limited integrated data exists on community structure, diversity, and species turnover in relation to environmental gradients in the Hindu Kush-Western Himalayas.

Purpose of the Study:

• To characterize plant community organization in northern Pakistan's moist temperate forests.
• To quantify alpha and beta diversity and analyze vegetation-environment relationships.

Main Methods:

• Vegetation and soil sampling across 50 stands representing environmental heterogeneity (2022-2023).
• Phytosociological attributes, soil physicochemical properties analysis.
• Community grouping, alpha and beta diversity quantification, and multivariate ordination analysis.

Main Results:

• Seventy plant species were recorded; five distinct plant communities were identified.
• Ordination revealed strong community separation, with composition linked to clay, sand, and slope.
• Alpha diversity varied significantly between communities, driven by soil texture and nutrients; beta diversity was dominated by species turnover.

Conclusions:

• Environmental filtering strongly drives species replacement across gradients in these forests.
• Edaphically and topographically heterogeneous habitats are critical for conserving plant diversity.
• Findings highlight the ecological significance of the Hindu Kush-Western Himalayan montane forests.